Building Bridges: Maya Horgan Famodu’s Silicon Valley-Africa Crossing Playbook (2017)

Episode overview This unfiltered 2017 archive dialogue captures Maya Horgan Famodu (Founder and Partner, Ingressive Capital) before she became known for straight-talking LinkedIn posts about founder insights and personal growth. Fresh from investment banking, she was forging new pathways between Silicon Valley capital and African startup innovation via carefully-curated investor tours—laying the groundwork for the launch of Ingressive Capital's investment months later. Listening back, you can hear how the same independence and non-traditional EQ that helped a "small girl from a trailer park" believe she could launch a VC fund was already shaping her vision. Critical points - The early signs of the independent thinking that would later become her trademark - How her unconventional background shaped her approach to investment - Why bridging Silicon Valley and African tech required a translator's insight - The unexpected ways growing up between worlds prepared her for building cross-cultural understanding What we know now Looking back from 2024, this conversation reveals both professional and personal threads that would define Horgan Famodu's impact: - The shift from understated confidence to singular public voice - How her own story of independent creativity would later resonate with investors and founders - The evolution from curating entrees to the African tech startup opportunity to foreign investors to leading investments Questions we're pondering - How has Horgan Famodu's public sharing of her personal journey influenced African tech discourse? - What role does authentic leadership play in venture capital today? - How has the relationship between personal story and professional impact evolved in African tech?